Add fail-closed config profile for production money paths (bets, predictions, claims)

[josephchimebuka]

Summary

Create a production safety profile that forces fail-closed Soroban, required secrets, disabled stub bets, and refuses to boot if money-path invariants are violated.

Why this matters

Demo-friendly defaults are dangerous if accidentally used in production campaign deployments.

Where to work

• src/config/ + preflight
• src/index.ts startup
• .env.example
• Render production env docs

What to implement

1. Define SAFETY_PROFILE=production|demo.
2. Production: BET_STUB_MODE forbidden, SOROBAN_FAIL_CLOSED=true, secrets required.
3. Preflight fails fast with actionable errors.
4. Startup logs active profile.
5. Tests for preflight accept/reject matrix.

Acceptance criteria

• Production profile cannot boot in stub mode.
• Missing secrets fail preflight.
• Demo profile still easy locally.
• Docs clearly separate profiles.

Done when

Production money paths cannot silently run in demo-safe mode.

Metadata

Field	Value
Difficulty	advanced
Complexity	high
Good first contribution?	no

[sasasamaes]

I’d like to take ownership of this issue and deliver a clean, production-ready solution.

I’m a Full Stack Engineer with 6+ years of experience building and maintaining scalable applications using Node.js, TypeScript, React, and modern backend architectures. I’ve worked extensively with REST APIs, database design (PostgreSQL, MongoDB), and system integrations.

I’m also a Sensei and active community member at Dev.f (https://devf.la/), where I mentor developers and contribute to their technical growth.

My approach is to:

• Quickly understand the existing codebase and architecture
• Implement a clean and consistent solution following best practices
• Ensure proper validation, error handling, and maintainability
• Deliver well-structured, readable code with clear communication

I also have experience in Web3 (Solidity, Rust, Cairo), which strengthens my approach to system reliability and data integrity.

I prioritize fast execution, low back-and-forth, and high-quality delivery.

Ready to start immediately.

[leocagli]

I would like to take this one.

Having built this exact profile before, the thing that decides whether it works is not the preflight itself. It is making the preflight the only place config is resolved.

The failure mode: preflight validates SOROBAN_FAIL_CLOSED at boot, passes, and then some module deep in the bet path reads process.env.SOROBAN_FAIL_CLOSED directly at call time and applies its own ?? false default. Preflight was green, and the money path still ran open. The config was never wrong, it was just read twice from two places with different defaults.

So the shape I would implement:

1. src/config/ resolves SAFETY_PROFILE once at boot into a frozen object, and every money path reads from that object. No process.env reads outside src/config/. That is enforceable with a lint rule or a single grep in CI, and without it the rest is decorative.
2. Under production, BET_STUB_MODE is not "ignored", it is a boot failure. Ignoring it silently is how a deploy ends up looking correct while doing the wrong thing. An explicit refusal with the offending variable named is what makes it debuggable at 3am.
3. The preflight runs before app.listen in src/index.ts. If it fails after the port is open, the readiness probe can mark the instance healthy in that window and it takes real traffic. Fail before binding, exit non-zero, let the orchestrator retry.
4. Errors name the variable, the expected value and the profile that required it. "Invalid configuration" costs more time than it saves.

For the accept/reject matrix I would write it as a table-driven test over (profile, env) pairs rather than individual cases, since the value is in covering the combinations, including the one that usually has no test: production with every secret present but BET_STUB_MODE still on.

Leo Cagliero, Starmaker program, working on Cosmos LATAM and Open Stellar.

[eriifeomoniyi-hue]

@eriifeomoniyi-hue has applied to work on this issue as part of the Stellar Wave Program's 8th wave.

I love to work on this issue

ℹ️ Repo Maintainers: To accept this application, review their application or assign @eriifeomoniyi-hue to this issue.

[yahayaf84771-afk]

@yahayaf84771-afk has applied to work on this issue as part of the Stellar Wave Program's 8th wave.

i would like to work on this issue please

ℹ️ Repo Maintainers: To accept this application, review their application or assign @yahayaf84771-afk to this issue.